Why Red Region & Why Flow   Leave a comment

I am often asked why I named a studio Red Region, and why even after closing the brick and mortar store  I continue with it.

The name Red Region came from a poem.
It is one of my most beloved poems.

The Mid-World by George William (“A. E.”) Russell (1867–1935).

THIS is the red, red region
Your heart must journey through:
Your pains will here be legion
And joy be death for you.

Rejoice to-day: to-morrow
A turning tide shall flow
Through infinite tones of sorrow
To reach an equal woe.

You pass by love unheeding
To gain the goal you long—
But my heart, my heart is bleeding:
I cannot sing this song.


As a poem it is perfection. As a painting with words it is a masterpiece. Simple, short, and lovely.
Mostly though it is something that I identify with.

Also
Basic definition of Red Region
noun
1: a place of eternal fire envisaged as punishment for the damned [syn: {hellfire}]
Related Words
Hell, hellfire, infernal region, Inferno, nether region, perdition, the pit
*sigh* also so fitting for me. I do relate.

Still… I seek the flow.
What is flow?

Flow (psychology) From Wikipedia:

Flow is the mental state of operation in which a person in an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity. Proposed by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, the positive psychology concept has been widely referenced across a variety of fields.[1]

According to Csikszentmihalyi, flow is completely focused motivation. It is a single-minded immersion and represents perhaps the ultimate in harnessing the emotions in the service of performing and learning. In flow, the emotions are not just contained and channeled, but positive, energized, and aligned with the task at hand. To be caught in the ennui of depression or the agitation of anxiety is to be barred from flow. The hallmark of flow is a feeling of spontaneous joy, even rapture, while performing a task[2] although flow is also described (below) as a deep focus on nothing but the activity – not even oneself or one’s emotions.

Colloquial terms for this or similar mental states include: to be on the ballin the momentpresentin the zonewired in, or in the groove.

I recommend you read up on it.
Not just the Wikipedia basics, but get deep. Read some books. Flow is freedom.

Posted March 18, 2012 by Aarron in Yabber Jabber Blabber

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